It’s her day so go out there and celebrate and show your appreciation…hug a tree, take a walk in the woods or find the perfect place to frolic in a field of flowers! The her I speak of is one of my all time favorite bad asses…Mother Nature!

Surprise and Delight…that’s what happens when Art and Mother Nature collide.

I was minding my own business driving home the other day and as I passed a local town square park I came upon such joy and magic that presented itself in the form of crocheted and knitted covered trees…yes, you read that right.

This was a definite stop, park and check out situation!

So this was what I found out…in honor of National Arts & Humanities month (which was in October) there was a nation wide public art installation celebration to bring awareness of the importance of the arts in our community. This absolutely amazing art that I had the privilege of encountering was created by the Atlanta-based group of knitters and crocheters The Knitterati.

Although I am a total ROYGBIV gal and color is my middle name (not really it’s Suzanne) for my master bath remodel that is just wrapping up I leaned hard into textures…when I say hard I mean I followed my normal gig of more is more. AND I LOVE IT!!!!

These are the textures I combo plattered into the bath of my dreams. I will have a reveal and some fun before and afters but still waiting for the final touches!

One was new to me and one was a repeat read but both were fantastic and I highly recommend both.

Travel, adventure and connecting with people is part of my DNA so it’s no surprise that my first round of reads this summer had to do with getting out there, exploring and meeting people from all over the country.

Although Travels with Charley was written in 1961 and South and West was from Joan Didion’s notebooks from 1970 what really struck a chord with me was how a great deal of the topics, issues, concerns and observations from the early 60’s and 70’s are similar to the topics, issues, concerns and observations of modern-day.

What is for sure different now than back in the 60’s/70’s was the actual book itself! Back in the day a book was a book…paper that was bound with a spine and with pages that could be dog eared to a indicate your stopping point. Now you can listen to a book, read a book on a computer, tablet or phone but I prefer the old school method…the real deal paper book!

So now let me share with you something I am crazy in love with which is the Little Free Library…a worldwide non-profit program the inspires the love of reading and community with a “take a book return a book exchange”. There are over 50,000 Little Free Libraries around the world in 70 countries from parks to front yards.

Today was my first time using the library which was pretty awesome. All I had to do was to go to the map to find my local library and too my surprise there were several within 5 miles of my home. So I got my book, wrote a message inside and asked future readers to do the same and then hopped into my car to find this purple Little Free Library which I found in a neighbors front yard…magical!